X-Men Monday #286 – Alyssa Wong Talks ‘Psylocke’

Welcome, X-Fans, to another uncanny edition of X-Men Monday at AIPT!

Did you know you can demand specific editions of X-Men Monday? Well, I guess “demand” is a strong word — let’s say “request” to reduce the volume of intense messages I receive. But that’s exactly how this edition came to be. A few fans of the Psylocke series simply requested a follow-up to our first interview with writer Alyssa Wong on social media, Alyssa was down to do it, we had space in the schedule, and here you are, about to read another great Kwannon conversation!

Before we start, though, do feel free to send any X-Men Monday requests to [email protected]. There are a lot of X-series, so there’s always plenty to cover, but it’s also good to know what you, the X-Fans, want to see! OK, on with the interview…

AIPT: Welcome back to X-Men Monday, Alyssa! Something I’ve loved about all the solo X-series has been seeing characters’ fanbases come out in force to campaign for these books and share their enthusiasm for their favorite characters finally getting a chance to shine. With four issues of Psylocke now out in the wild, what have you learned about Kwannon’s fanbase?

Alyssa Wong: Oh my god, her fanbase is so excited. They’re so passionate and it fills me with a lot of joy. I love how hyped they are for Kwannon, her adventures, each chapter of her history, and what we’re building to. I just love that they love her. I’ll be honest, I actually didn’t know there was such an intense, excited, and passionate fanbase for Kwannon because X-Fan spaces are pretty new to me. I’m just out here writing by myself, so it was an amazing surprise to see how welcoming people were.

After the San Diego Comic-Con panel where we revealed Psylocke, someone came up to me and gave me this Psylocke bracelet I’m wearing. It’s so cute. They came up to me and said, “Here, I want you to have this.” And I was like, “Thank you, but I can’t take your bracelet, that’s yours.” And they were like, “No, I think you need it more than I do.” So when I write Psylocke, I wear it. 

I feel grateful because not all fanbases are that welcoming. But the stans are out there organizing, putting together pre-order lists with links, and they’re always just so happy. It makes me so happy and I find it very inspiring.

AIPT: That’s great, and I hope the fan who gave you the bracelet is reading! And speaking of fans — let’s get into those X-Fan questions, as there were a lot. X-Fan Caroline Bird is loving the book and first wanted to know, when writing Psylocke, what was your inspiration for finding her voice and deciding on the tone of the series? 

Alyssa: My editor Darren Shan approached me about the project and told me we’ve seen Kwannon on a bunch of different teams, but we haven’t really seen very much of just her as a person. He really wanted to dig into that and he wanted to go dark. I love dark stories and really intense character stories, so this project sounded perfect and I immediately said, “Yes.” In terms of the research I did, I thought about her and who she is. She’s kind of got the stoic ninja thing going on. But this is a woman with really complicated, conflicting, and complex feelings about her past and her body, who she is now, who she was, and who, where, and what she was in between.

Kwannon is somebody who was raised in a ninja assassin cult and trained to be one very specific person: The perfect assassin. You don’t have a normal childhood like that. So a lot of the research I did going in was about cults, deprogramming, and how you have to fight every day and retrain your brain out of the patterns that were drilled into you as a child or just as a cult member. Every day is a struggle in that sense. But she’s also got these years of not only uncertainty as to who she was with the whole Betsy Braddock thing but also absolute certainty in what she was supposed to be. So she wants to be different, but she doesn’t know that she can be. And I think that’s sort of the eternal question for a lot of folks who grow up in really screwed-up situations like that. So even though she doesn’t speak a lot externally, she has a lot going on inside, and it’s just that she isn’t willing to let other people in on most of that.

So I don’t know if that answers the question, but I love her. I think of her as someone very passionate and the way she expresses that might not translate as immediately as some of our more warm characters. But I love characters who are just trying their best to hold it together no matter what. And she’s absolutely one of those characters.

AIPT: Caroline was also curious — if Greycrow wasn’t in the picture, do you think she would tap that Shinobi Shaw ass at least once? 

Alyssa: I love this question, and the answer is yes. Canonically, yes, she has. They hooked up on Krakoa’s first birthday at that big party. She has absolutely tapped that and definitely not just once. I think if Greycrow wasn’t in the picture, she’d be making worse decisions.

And I don’t think I could classify Shinobi Shaw as anything but a terrible decision, which is why I absolutely love him. I think she has a type and that type is unfortunately very dangerous, very capable, and very much a murderer. So, Greycrow’s reformed? Shinobi is not, and I love writing Shinobi because he doesn’t care about that. He’s like, “I know what I am and it’s terrible, and I love it.” So he’s sort of the opposite of Greycrow. Kwannon is struggling with who she is and who she wants to be. Shinobi’s like, “I’m here, I’m rich, I’m beautiful, I’m powerful, and I just cut a guy in half with my body. I love that for me.”

AIPT: X-Fan Johann said, in Psylocke #4, Kwannon is haunted by an image of Betsy Braddock as the true and original Psylocke. Something similar happened in Hellions. Do you think Kwannon still feels insecure about the Psylocke mantle or Betsy in general? 

Alyssa: I think this one’s complicated. I think you’re always going to have messy, hard-to-define feelings about someone whose life and being are so intertwined with your own, no matter what the circumstances are. And their circumstances are complicated. So, I don’t know about insecurity, but I would say it’s messier than that.

And we might be seeing a little more of that in upcoming issues. I can’t tell you any more or Darren’s going to pop out of the closet.

AIPT: X-Fan Charrisa loved the reference to Revanche in Psylocke #4. Charrisa feels like many folks who became Kwannon fans during the Krakoan era aren’t very familiar with the Revanche saga. We don’t know much about what Kwannon did for Nyorin after she entered Betsy’s body and before she encountered the X-Men. Any plans or interest in revisiting that period?

Alyssa: That’s spoiler territory. 

All I can say is I love Revanche. I think she’s great. I love that weird moment where she shows up the very first time and it’s like the Spider-Man pointing meme. I love a complicated identity swap story. I just feel like turnabout’s fair play. If Betsy’s in Kwannon’s body, I love seeing Kwannon in Betsy’s body. That’s kind of just how I feel about all of this. It’s so messy, but in a way that I love. I love mess, like Marie Kondo.

AIPT: Speaking of mess, Ty Haniver is a creepy new addition to Kwannon’s world. What inspired the creation of the Taxonomist as an antagonist for Kwannon?

Alyssa: I was thinking about two things. I was trying to chart Kwannon’s history as I was doing research for this book. I thought, this is something that would be really fun to archive. What if we had somebody who was some kind of archivist who sees all of that and goes, “That is exciting. That is what I want to preserve.” We also have the butterfly motif that’s a signature Psylocke element. So my immediate thought was butterfly collector. So if you mesh those two things together, you have somebody who is really invested in preservation, but also interested in chimeric identities, which you can see with his weird patchwork animals that are part animal, part machine, part another animal.

And I thought, why would someone be so personally invested in Kwannon? Maybe this person’s really interested in mutations. And I’ve been reading about a lot of naturally occurring mutations and jackalopes — which are real, but they’re terrible. They catch this virus and start growing horrible growths out of their eyes and mouths, so it looks like they have horns and it eventually kills them. It’s very sad, but that’s sort of the root of the jackalope myth. And there are many rare and interesting mutations that occur in humans as well. I was thinking about rare immunological conditions. So I thought, you have this guy who’s really invested in the preservation of something that’s rare, fragile, and beautiful. You have someone who wants a record of his own existence and also of other peoples and creatures. This is somebody who is lonely and personally invested and has this very rare mutation that’s usually fatal, but somehow he’s managed to beat the odds. So his investment in Kwannon as this chimeric entity that doesn’t exist anywhere else because of her history with Betsy — that’s why he wants her, that’s what’s interesting about her.

So that’s a long way of saying those are all the different pieces that came together. Also, Haniver is a reference to Jenny Haniver, which were these composite creatures you can look up. People just made them out of sting rays and stuff. They’re really cool.

AIPT: Wow, it’s great to learn all the elements that went into a single character’s creation. Thanks for sharing that! Next, X-Fan Hermes is absolutely enjoying this run. Hermes loves Kwannon’s new ninja tools. It’s a wonderful separation of how Kwannon uses her powers as Psylocke. For you, is this a way to subvert her from using her powers? As if the psychic knife and constructs are for mental and emotional damage, while the tools are for physical?

Alyssa: That’s exactly right. She has multiple skills. She’s got the psychic knife, her psychic abilities, but she’s also a ninja and I wanted to dig in a little bit more there and make up some new stuff that we haven’t seen before that is very specific to her. Psychic weapons for psychic damage. Physical weapons for physical damage.

AIPT: X-Fan Rafael M says Kwannon and Cyclops seem to have formed a great bond of trust since Hellions, with training sessions in X-Men and incredible synergy in fights. Will we see more of this friendship along the way?

Alyssa: I have a feeling we might. I think Cyclops is an important figure in Kwannon’s life, so I think we’ll naturally see a little more Cyclops going forward. And I just want to say I am absolutely in love with Jed MacKay and Ryan Stegman’s X-Men. That’s where you’re going to see a lot of it, and it is so fun.

AIPT: What’s your take on Scott and Kwannon’s relationship?

Alyssa: I think I see Cyclops as somebody who takes being a team leader very seriously. And sometimes to be a good team leader, you have to bench some of your team members. So, in Psylocke #1, he tells Kwannon that she’s off the team temporarily because he hasn’t seen her sleep in weeks. She’s running herself ragged and burning herself out — go to bed. He does that because he cares about her and believes that’s the best move he can make as a leader. Whether she’s happy about it, he’s like, “Too bad, it’s my call.” So it’s a bit of that tough love kind of thing. He’ll always pick what he believes is the best option, not just for himself, but for his whole team. And I think that’s part of why Kwannon trusts him.

I see the relationship as a healthy one, because they’ve spent so much time together at this point and they both share that mindset of, here’s the mission, it needs to be done no matter what the personal cost is to me, this mission has to be completed for everybody else’s good. That’s the thing they have in common, and that’s sort of the thing they bond over.

AIPT: Now, I received a lot of questions about Psylocke teaming up with various characters, but X-Fans Fallon Davis, Kaldervallry, and Kenneth were all wondering if Psylocke might ever interact with Elektra or Daredevil. 

Alyssa: Anything’s possible in the future. I think it’d be really fun. I think right now we are really focusing in on Kwannon, and I’ve got a very weird and fun arc planned for the next few issues. But maybe after that — we’ll have to find out.

AIPT: Speaking of the future, we just learned in the solicitation for Psylocke #7 that Kwannon will be interacting with Deathdream from Uncanny X-Men’s Outliers. How is it writing this relatively new addition to the X-universe and what can you tease about their dynamic?

Alyssa: I love Deathdream. I saw him for the first time and I was like, “That’s the one I want. I want that kid.” I’m a sucker for characters who can speak to the dead and are just a little bit weird and disconnected. And he’s so cute.

I talked to Gail Simone like immediately after a San Diego Comic-Con panel. I was like, “Gail, Gail, Gail, can I borrow your son?” And she was like, “Yeah, please do.” So I got her blessing and I finally found a way to bring him in. Writing a new character is exciting because there’s so much unexplored territory with him, so you get to define really interesting moments. You get to really dig in and find their voice. Every writer writes a character differently because everybody writes differently, but with a new character, not many people have gotten the chance to do that. So you really get to have fun and the freedom to play around, and it’s great.

As for the dynamic — Deathdream’s a weird little kid. I think Kwannon has this protective instinct that kicks in with kids and vulnerable people in general. Like how she’s low-key accidentally adopted Devon Di Angelo.

AIPT: Except Quintin Quire.

Alyssa: And then there’s Quentin, which I think sums up everything right there. But with Deathdream, they have a lot of things in common. They’re both disconnected and kind of weird. They didn’t have the average experience growing up. I think they can connect on that front. I just love him so much. So thanks, Gail!

AIPT: While we’re looking ahead, what else can you tease about the future of Psylocke?

Alyssa: I would say we’re going to go deep, deep, deep into Kwannon’s psyche. And it’s not a pleasant and pretty place. I’m really excited and can’t believe they let me do this, but we’re going full horror for this next bit of the adventure and I’m living, so I hope you like it too. I’m finally getting to flex my spooky muscles and horror is my first love, so that’s great. I’ve written a lot of happier stuff for Marvel, so getting to do this just feels delicious.

AIPT: As we wrap up, X-Fan Jenn said we know a lot about how Kwannon feels about Betsy, but how do you think she would feel if she learned about or met the other Psylockes out in the multiverse? Sai, for one, from Demon Days, but most especially Kanon Sainouchi from Ultimate X-Men. Kanon is just so different from any other version of these characters in such a fun way. Jenn would love to see how motherly Kwannon would react to this gremlin child.

Alyssa: I think she’d be like, “Oh my god, this is so wild.” There’s something cool about thinking about all the different people you could have been in different situations and whether you would’ve gotten along with them. So I would actually love a multiverse adventure — I think it would be so fun. I’m sorry if that’s not a particularly long answer, but I wasn’t super familiar with all of these characters. But then I did some reading and I was like, “I want to write all of them. Can someone give them to me, please?”

AIPT: Finally, we’ll wrap with a hard-hitting comics journalism question — X-Fan SpideyFan92 asked if Psylocke is a cat or dog person.

Alyssa: I think people think Psylocke’s a cat person. She’s got that personality. But I think she likes all animals. I think she likes dogs and cats. But I don’t think she could have a dog because she’s always gone. She’d have to go with something more low maintenance, maybe a cat. But I secretly think she loves all animals. Like Disney Princess-style

AIPT: Even those two-headed cyborg animals?

Alyssa: OK, maybe not that — that’s a little different. But yeah, she’s got that protective thing going on, and I think animals are innocent in a way people aren’t. That’s why I think she likes animals.

AIPT: You heard it here first, X-Fans — get that Wikipedia page updated! But on that note, Alyssa, thanks for stopping by X-Men Monday!

X-Fans, remember to pick up Psylocke #5, which goes on sale March 19, 2025. Too far off, right? Good thing we have the issue’s lettered preview as this week’s X-Men Monday eXclusive.

Writer: Alyssa Wong
Pencillers: Vincenzo Carratu and Moises Hidalgo
Inkers: Vincenzo Carratu and Moises Hidalgo
Colorist: Fer Sifuentes
Letterer: VC’s Ariana Maher
Editor: Darren Shan
Cover Artist: Mahmud Asrar

Scary stuff! But wait, there’s one more eXclusive — artist Alex Maleev’s variant cover to Psylocke #6, on sale April 2, 2025.

In the next edition of X-Men Monday: Writer Murewa Ayodele returns to discuss his ongoing Storm series, along with the upcoming “X-Manhunt” crossover.

Until next time, X-Fans, stay exceptional!